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Technology Stocks : Siebel Systems (SEBL) - strong buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (6010)	6/11/2002 11:17:42 PM
From: chojiro	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6974

No surprise for us software people- Unfortunately for SEBL, it seems(looking at AH trading) that most "investors" here are not software people! Unless of course Tom is lurking, in that case he's just sellin'. Good chance PPT will step into the markets tomorrow and try to keep things afloat, but last I looked, 68% of the float is held by institutions. How much loyalty do you thing they have? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuesday June 11, 7:21 pm Eastern Time Reuters Company News Siebel CFO says Q2 looks as tough as Q1 (rewrites 2nd paragraph, updates stock price, adds details, byline) By Ilaina Jonas NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - Siebel Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SEBL - News) Chief Financial Officer Ken Goldman said on Tuesday that the current second quarter looks as difficult as the first quarter -- which the company, one of the world's largest software manufacturers, described at the time as one of the worst quarters ever. ADVERTISEMENT "It's every bit as challenging," he said in response to a question about how the second quarter compares with the first quarter. He was speaking to investors at a Bear Stearns technology conference here. Later, speaking before a smaller group of investors, Goldman expanded on his observations. "The IT (information technology) environment is every bit, if not frankly more challenging this quarter than it was last year," he said. Shares of Siebel fell in after-hours trade on Instinet, to $16.82 from the close of $17.66 on Nasdaq. The stock later regained ground, trading at $17 in the evening. The industries that in the past have driven spending on software -- finance, telecommunications and high-tech itself -- are either restructuring or downsizing, Goldman said. Goldman said the drastic cut back on spending is not just a problem in North America. "The environment seems very similar across the world," he said. San Mateo, California-based Siebel, the No. 1 maker of sales and customer service software, said in April that it expected second-quarter revenues would be flat with the first quarter. Without a growth in revenue, the company's previous 19 percent operating margins could be in jeopardy. "This is very hard to mai???g margins of 19 percent when you don't see revenue improving," he said. In April, the company did not provide any earnings per share guidance for the second quarter or say anything about the full year 2002. The company has previously said it expects???son First Call. Goldman said he would not comment on guidance, including Wall Street's outlook. Siebel ended the first quarter with about 7,300 employees. While Goldman said he does not see layoffs in the near future, he expected the work force would be about 50 to 100 less by the end of June. For the year, analysts expect the company to earn an average of 50 cents a share, with 27 estimates ranging from 44 cents a share to 56 cents a share. Analysts on average expect revenues to be $1.979 billion, with 22 estimates ranging from $1.855 billion to $2.098 billion.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (6010)	6/12/2002 9:43:15 AM
From: Boplicity	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6974

Lizzie, How much, for lack of a better term, is the over capacity situation in the software sector that we are seeing, being reflected in the need for programers, system engineers, etc etc? Also, is the lack of buying of software more a case of users trying to ring more from what they have or have the advances that have been made in recent upgrades aren't of the variety that fall into the must have category? In other words. Has the software sector reach a maturity state like the hardware sector has? What I'm looking for is determine if a structural change on macro level has happen in the software sector so as to determine if the sector is experiencing a short term downtrend with the rest of hightech or will the down turn become more lasting like the hardware sector has enter into. Thanks and how are you by they way? b